‘Gray is a magnificent writer’ Sunday Times
| ||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. Learn more. |
Book Description
Product details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, and more.
Product Description
Book Description
Something Leather is about the love lives of June, Senga, Donalda and a distant cousin of a queen from 1963 to 1990. Also in it are unhappy children, a dangerously liberal headmistress, a tobacconist’s family, a student, nightwatchman, pimp, businessman, boilerman, policeman, ex-serviceman, quiet couple, tinker, nurse, commercial traveller, arts administrator, former Lord Provost, Glasgow comedian, worried civil servant, brilliant but unstable politician, lighthouse keeper and trained cormorant. This is the first British fiction since The Canterbury Tales to show such a wide social range in such embarrassing sexual detail, yet no characters are based on real people, not even the Glasgow comedian. What the critics say Very For ‘Something Leather is Alasdair Gray’s most entertaining, and maybe his best, novel to date’ Arena ‘Brilliantly funny, beautifully observed, and shot through with irony’ Anne Smith, Literary Review ‘Edgy, sharp and genuinely shocking’ Christopher Walker, Observer ‘This brilliant book . . . is altogether admirable . . . Alasdair Gray is a splendid storyteller, in command of vivid and vigorous prose. His book is touching, bracing and very funny’ Paul Driver, Financial Times Not Very For ‘A book that shouldn’t have happened’ Harry Ritchie, Sunday Times ‘A confection of self-indulgent tripe’ Victoria Glendinning, The Times ‘An ill-conceived, sloppy book, charmless and squalid, it aims low and fails to deliver’ Paul Whittacker, Tribune ‘A novel not fully resolved . . . however, the book – as you might expect from a painter and illustrator who does his own designing – is stunningly beautiful’ George Macbeth, Irish Times
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By Durnovaria
Format:Paperback
Within a framing device of a pornographic fantasy (a quartet of women involved in a lesbian sadomasochistic orgy) this novel comprises vignettes of people across the social and political spectrum of Glasgow. It particularly concentrates on believable portraits, presented in complex intercut form, of the lives and relationships of the women that led to this scenario. As another reviewer comments, none of the characters are very sympathetic. Gray's women are cynical and cold, his men ineffectual and given to political lectures. Nevertheless, this is a very readable novel with interesting characterisation, particularly of Harriet, the autistic artist whose strange mindset stems from abuse as a child.
4 of 6 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
Nice social observation and class-divide comedy, and the convoluted time-jumps of the plot reward repeated reading. Gray's illustrations and calligraphy, reminiscent of Eric Gill's work, make one wish that the whole thing could be handwritten.
The characters, however, are unconvincing. We are never quite sure of their motivation, and they are almost universally unsympathetic.
Nevertheless, a curio worth seeking out.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.5 out of 5 stars
2 reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Raves for Gray's leather-and-bondage Bildungsroman
25 Mar 1998
By Lee Story
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
It bewilders me that such a fine piece of work should drop out of print so quickly, while so much that's mediocre or worse gains a wide audience and many reprints. This comic and satirical novel is written in a neo-picaresque chain-of-stories form, and is a fine companion to Gray's prizewinning _Poor_Things_. Gray himself credits the inimitable Kathy Acker for the inspiration to write it. You'll never look at a woman in leather in the same way again. The nominal epilogue--really an essential part of the structure--may be the funniest part.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Something Leather
22 Jun 2009
By Walter Stockwell
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
Alasdair Gray is an interesting an unique voice... This is a fun little book, but best to find one with his illustrations. He is at his best when he uses his art and words together. Try to find one of the British editions.
›
Go to Amazon.com to see both reviews
4.5 out of 5 stars
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
